Nest take over

[btwhitaker]

When I left home to head back to school at the end of spring break (abt march 10th), two of the geese across from my house were sitting, including a young pilgrim goose. Now that I'm home for Easter, she is dead and an older Canada goose is now sitting on her clutch. I have no idea if she got to the eggs in time to save them after the pilgrim died, but I would imagine not. Has anyone ever heard of this before? Not necessarily a Canada goose taking over a domestic goose's nest, but a female taking over a clutch after the death of another? Carly (the pilgrim goose) and Uno (the Canada goose) did not get along, which makes it even more odd to me that Uno would adopt her nest.

This is how I left the nest:

This is the poor fate of little Carly RIP. I have no idea what got a hold of her. She had been decapitated, does anyone know of a predator that can be found at a city park that kills this way?


And here's how I found the nest this afternoon:
I know this little female well. She's an outstanding mother. If she got to the eggs in time, she'll do a great job raising them.

Thanks for any ideas!

 

[jakal92]

I know this post is old, but I thought I would share some info.
I lost a guinea and a peacock last fall, both missing their heads.
It only happened to the birds who roosted on top of my chicken tractor.
So I was thinking it was a hawk, but it always seemed to happen after dark.
It turns out that an owl had been visiting every evening.
I saw him the third night after I heard all of my birds squawking and running for the barn.
Also my neighbors told me stories of years ago when they raised geese near an open pond,
they would find 20 dead geese some mornings from the owls.
I think they might attack and come back later for the remains because the one dead guinea I left until the next day and it was gone that night

 

[JJRS]

A friend has experienced this several times with ducks. For him it was Great Horned Owls (probably the same as you).

 

[jakal92]

Yes it was a huge white great horned owl about two feet tall perched on my cage. I haven't had any troubles since then, now they all go in the barn before dark. My bantams were the most difficult to train not too roost in the trees.